Streets
Hacked apart. The pavement of the city's streets is often abused because of utility projects. The Gas Company, Water and Sewer Authority, and even institutional needs cause the jackhammers to arrive and corresponding patches to be created. Pittsburgh's higher density, older infrastructure, mixed uses, weather, hills and poor planning make these pressures greater than suburban areas. * Planks about streets from Mark Rauterkus * Streets-plank-Wisconsin from Milwaukee about residents paying for traffic calming upgrades How many does it take to change a light bulb? The city, in its infinate wisdom, fired it lone traffic engineer in August 2002. That employee was needed to do many different project including stop lights. Either, things didn't get done. Or, things needed to be contracted out to other traffic engineers. The city can't change a stop light to blink when it doesn't have a traffic engineer. Pay to play worries exist, yet alone the threat of getting run over by autos and street safety. Links * Pedestrians * Red Light Cameras * Streets-article-CityPaper from Feb 2008, Here we go pavers, here we go Insights Street Repairs & Repaving Roads City seeks plans to automate street paving decisions, Tuesday, August 28, 2007, P-G The city of Pittsburgh asked technology firms to submit plans to automate the process of deciding which streets are repaved. The administration issued a request for proposals for software and services that would predict wear and tear on streets, and prioritize paving based on the use and condition of roads, and on financial constraints. Proposals have to include plans to put pavement data and decisions on the city Web site, according to the request. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl called the request "another piece of the overall puzzle of being a more effective government. That's been a fundamental theme of the administration from the beginning." The city's current process, which is based on a mixture of objective measurements and complaints, has been criticized for being open to political influence and manipulation. Responses to the request for proposals are due Sept. 28, 2007. Blogs * Bike Advocacy, http://www.anklebiter.net/log/ from December 2006 ::Local councilman William Peduto last week proposed an initiative to traffic cameras at the busiest, most dangerous intersections in the city to automatically ticket drivers who do not obey the traffic signals. According to plan, the revenue raised by the tickets ($100 each) would go directly to improvements for alternative transportation, namely cyclists and pedestrians (those most affected by drivers who disobey traffic laws). A friend initiated a discussion among a group of bicycle commuters, and generally, our reaction has been lukewarm. The general feeling is that, yes, better safety is a Good Thing, but are we being fooled into thinking there is a pot of gold waiting at the end of rainbow? Peduto said he expects "millions of dollars" to be generated through the tickets, with most of it going into a fund for alternative transportation initiatives. That sounds quite good in theory, but given our cash-strapped city, I have trouble imagining council allowing pedestrians and (eeeww!) cyclists to sit on that much money for a few signs and maybe another bike trail. ::In thinking about this over the last few days, my own cynicism has softened. I've connected the dots a bit between the ideas of Ivan Illich (who actually wrote extensively about the bicycle and the role the government should play in promoting alternative transportation) and my own localist tendacies and realized that this is the sort of thing our city government should be doing. I am hopeful that pedestrians and cyclists will see the "millions" of dollars these cameras might generate? Not terribly. Even if council passes this measure today, it is likely to be de-fanged a bit. It isn't good politics to tell your constituents that you just helped pass a bill that would give millions of dollars to pedestrians and cyclists, not when the city has trouble providing basic services. In the end, however, this is likely a better initiative than the city spending more money on bringing another failed department store to downtown. ::And perhaps, just for a moment, I can suspend my political cynicism. External links * Another city lowers speed limits while it buys additional video cameras to generate tickets